06-01-2020, 03:36 PM
I kept hearing about this film in "weird movie" circles, but could never find a copy to watch. Suddenly it popped up on criterion.com.
Longer than I thought, at 3 hr. 13 minutes, and it took a couple nights to get through it. My feelings are that it's much stronger in the first half than the second, and could have done with a trim.
Still, it's an amazing bit of cinema. The two women protagonists are very odd and opposite, played by two eccentric actresses who contributed scenarios to the storyline. The plot is very convoluted, with many fantastical elements, and I won't attempt to summarize it. Suffice it to say that the movie's virtues lie in the chemistry of the two leads.
I do think that Rivette ultimately gave them a bit too much rein; but still, better too much than too little.
I hadn't realized until checking that this is not my first brush with Jacques Rivette's work. There's also The Story of Marie and Julien, which I'd skip, and La Belle Noiseuse, which is a must-see. Here is what I had to say about those.
Longer than I thought, at 3 hr. 13 minutes, and it took a couple nights to get through it. My feelings are that it's much stronger in the first half than the second, and could have done with a trim.
Still, it's an amazing bit of cinema. The two women protagonists are very odd and opposite, played by two eccentric actresses who contributed scenarios to the storyline. The plot is very convoluted, with many fantastical elements, and I won't attempt to summarize it. Suffice it to say that the movie's virtues lie in the chemistry of the two leads.
I do think that Rivette ultimately gave them a bit too much rein; but still, better too much than too little.
I hadn't realized until checking that this is not my first brush with Jacques Rivette's work. There's also The Story of Marie and Julien, which I'd skip, and La Belle Noiseuse, which is a must-see. Here is what I had to say about those.
I'm nobody's pony.